BRAND NEW CONCERT!!!!  That EXCITED statement sums up my feelings as I was heading on a trip down to Villanova for my brother’s 22nd birthday.  An action–packed agenda was lined up for what was looking like a seriously awesome weekend:

 FRIDAY NIGHT

1. Wiffleball Friday afternoon
2. Trip to the bar for cold drinks and 76ers playoff basketball (YEA!! Great win!!)
3. Back to Tom’s place for a surprise birthday party (Great job by Tom’s girlfriend and his roommates!)

SATURDAY NIGHT

1. Videogames early in the afternoon
2. Meet up with parents for Tom’s birthday cake
3. More exciting wiffleball action
4. BRAND NEW CONCERT for the climax of the weekend


Friday night was entertainment at its finest.  Wiffleball was a blast, the 76ers continued their improbable playoff run with an upset win over the Pistons, and the surprise party was wild and unpredictable, culminating with my brother’s semi-successful drunken dive into a kiddie pool. 
Saturday was continuing the domination, and as we hopped into the car, we all expected that Brand New was going to put on a SPECTACULAR show.  The car ride over was wonderfully filled with spectacularly off-key renditions as we BLASTED some of our favorite Brand New tunes out the windows.  The 3 of us ROCKED OUT like we were already at the show. 

We rolled into the stadium pumped up like Jose Canseco in 1991.  The opening act was just walking onto the stage.  Some supposedly hot new rapper named Sean Kingston was leading off the show.  While I am completely and utterly unqualified to comment on rap quality, I thought he was thoroughly mediocre.  More than half of his show was spent either playing other artists songs (Gwen Stefani, WTF?!) on the speakers or talking about trivial BS.  The other half was spent lip synching a sizeable chunk of his songs.  After a few, I was wondering if Milli Vanilli was going to make an appearance.  The DJ did manage to play a clip of “KINGSTON, KINGSTON, KINGSTON, KINGSTON” several MILLION TIMES just in case we had forgotten his name.  After walking off the stage 3 or 4 times and returning for several encores even though the crowd was as excited as Cook would be while watching women’s basketball, Kingston finally exited stage left and the stage crew began swapping the equipment and getting ready for the headline act.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lights dimmed, and the noise started to rise from the crowd.  BRAND NEW WAS COMING!!! BRAND NEW WAS COMING!!!  The ten or twelve of us who were there together were READY!!  Which ROCKING song were they going to come out and BLOW US AWAY with?  The band reached their places and elected to go with……….some weird instrumental??  The crowd sort of stood there stunned as the band played this instrumental piece which sounded like each of them picked up their instruments and played WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANTED.  There was NEGATIVE continuity between the band members.  “It’s OK, though” I thought.  “They are just getting us warmed up.  Here comes the asskicking!”  Next up…a relatively slow, moody song from their 3rd album.  The crowd appeared to be getting restless.  By the time Brand New’s next song started (another slow-ish song from album #3), all of the energy you could feel at the start of the set had been SUCKED from the building.  Before their 4th song had finished, people were starting to file out of the stadium.  What was going on?!!  The last time I had seen Brand New (at a small venue in Philly) they BLEW THE EFFING DOORS OF THE PLACE!!  We absolutely ROCKED OUT to one of the 5 best concerts I’ve ever seen. 

This time, within a half hour of the start of the concert the stadium had EMPTIED OUT.  I estimate that there were 3,000 people there at the start of the show (note – this is based on absolutely nothing, it’s just my best guess).  By the time the band was halfway done, there couldn’t have been more than 700 people left in the arena.  You have to realize that the show cost $20 a seat.  If 2,300 people left, that’s FORTY SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS walking out the door.  It’s not too often $46,000 decides it has something better to do.  The last time that much money disappeared that fast, the IRS was banging down Wesley Snipes’ door.     
   
Things didn’t improve much after that.  The band finally played a few songs from their first 2 albums, but their selection was HORRIFIC.  They played “The No Seatbelt Song”, the slowest song from the first album.  They also chose “Play Crack the Sky”, the slowest song on the second album.   The place was so quiet that I had a conversation with my brother at a normal decibel level (describing how TERRIBLE the show was) and several people 20 feet away turned around to look at us while we talked.  Shouldn’t you have to YELL in a concert?  I didn’t even lose my voice.  Thank God Brand New played “Sic Transit Gloria” and “The Shower Scene” (the one song in the concert that ROCKED beyond any shadow of a doubt – it’s a crying shame no one was there to hear it).  However, the good tunes were few and far between.  Every time they went to a song from their 3rd album, a PARADE of people wandered up to the stage.  WHAT ARE YOU, AN EFFING ORCHESTRA??  I thought you were a ROCK AND ROLL band!! 

Whatever happened to drums, guitar, and bass?  On some of the songs they went with 2 drummers, which as far as I can tell did NOTHING to improve the quality of the music.  Sometimes they had a person up there SOLELY to play tambourine.  I’m glad my $20 went towards keeping THAT DUDE on the payroll.  They even brought an ACCORDIAN out for one of the acoustic songs!!  O YEA!  AN ACCORDIAN!!  THAT’S GOING TO HELP!!  WHY DON’T YOU JUST COME OUT AND ROCK!?!     

Mercifully, they finally reached the end of their set.  The concert ended with Jesse singing “You Won’t Know” over and over and over again.  How appropriate.  You are right - I won’t know – I WON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ONE OF MY FAVORITE BANDS!    At that point, Brand New announced “Thanks for coming.  That’s our last song.”  Then they walked off the stage.  Appropriately, there was no encore.  I don’t think too many people cared though.  The extremely half-hearted “one more song” chant lasted about 5 seconds, since all of the life and excitement had long since left the building.   

The 3 of us who remained (out of TWELVE!!) were shell-shocked.  My brother looked like someone had stabbed his dog, lit it on fire, and then pissed on the ashes.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so disappointed in his entire life.  One friend of Tom’s ran into us on the way to our car, so we gave her a ride.  In the car she noted that “These guys are WAY BETTER than the terrible band we just saw”, except we were listening to BRAND NEW’S 2nd ALBUM!!!  We wandered over to the bar to meet our “fallen comrades” but we all found we had lost the stomach to even pick up a single beer.  We were LITERALLY SICK from what we had seen.  I think all 3 of us felt sort of like crying.  My brother spent most of the night issuing APOLOGIES to his friends on behalf of the band, “They’re really good.  REALLY, they are.  Their first two albums are INCREDIBLE.”  Needless to say, most of them replied with a halfhearted “Sure” to make him feel better, but immediately rolled their eyes as soon as they turned away.  I think he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince them.  All I could think was “THIS is how they are trying to win new fans!!  We skipped a FLYERS PLAYOFF GAME for this GARBAGE!!”    Brand New could have made hundreds of new fans, but instead all they did was guarantee that a group of people will never give them a 2nd chance – and who can blame them?



So, what happened?  How did my favorite band (other than Weezer) take such a MASSIVE FALL FROM GRACE that I couldn’t even enjoy their concert?  Let’s take a closer look.

Brand New’s first album, “Your Favorite Weapon”, is in my opinion, the best pop-punk album of all time.  The lyrics appear to offer a great big middle finger to those who had hurt Jesse in the past.  The music though, is upbeat, loud, and fast.  It’s the sort of album that makes you WANT to go to a concert. 

Brand New’s second album “Deja Entendu” is much darker and much deeper.  Jesse really takes an introspective look at himself and the depth of his personality.  The music is much, much more complex than the first album, but in a FANTASTIC way.  The band really expanded on their talents, crafting an incredible mix of spectacularly crafted songs. 
 
Brand New’s third album “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me” has a fantastic title, and that’s about it.  The songs are extremely moody and depressing.  The song structure is extremely odd.  Most of the songs include several minutes of mumbling from Jesse (instead of singing) followed by a short section of screaming.  Others slowly increase the volume, prepping for a major climax, only the climax never comes.  Most of the time, Jesse sounds like he attacked his vocal chords with a razor blade.  This album is a flaming pile of dog doo.  Period.  There isn’t a single song on this album that would even MAKE THE CUT for either of the first two albums.  Actually, there isn’t a single song on this album that I even like.  It’s the only album I’ve ever heard from great band, where I don’t like even ONE song.     


Please don’t think that I want Brand New to remain stagnant.  Changing styles is essential.  It’s impossible to have 2 great albums without doing something different.  Brand New pulled this off masterfully between album 1 and album 2.  However, the problems with changes like these are that they usually lead to a lot of terrible songs.  Bands that are willing to take chances often stray too far from what made them successful in the first place.  Other brands hit the big time, and then REFUSE to do anything other than what made them famous in the first place.  Take Good Charlotte for example.  Their first album is EXCELLENT.  But then they blew up and went Hollywood.  Since then they’ve effectively REMADE their first album 3 or 4 times.  Guess what guys?  I ALREADY HEARD THIS!!  They give you almost no reason to pick up their new music because it’s no different than their old music.


A closer look at some Brand New songs will illustrate my point WAY better than I could ever explain in words.  The first two videos are from the band’s first two INCREDIBLE albums (cleverly titled BRAND OLD).  The second two are from their ATROCIOUS third album.  To be fair I took one quality video from a major television appearance and one grainy video from a concert for each section.  That way you can get one example with top notch sound quality, and one example to give you a better example of what it’s like to be at a Brand New concert.  (Note – more than any rant I’ve written in the past it’s ESSENTIAL that you watch and listen to the videos before going forward)


BRAND OLD
(Albums 1 and 2)

The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows (TV):
 

LISTEN TO THE BAND!!  They sound INCREDIBLE.  Jesse’s vocals are top notch and the music accompanying them EFFING ROCKS!!  In the middle, it slows down and then builds back up just BLOWS ME AWAY. 

“I lie for only you, and I lie with Hallelu….AND IIIII LLLLIIEEEE FOOORRRRR ONNLLYYYY YOOOUU”.

Now THAT is how you build up to a crescendo and then LET IT ALL LOOSE!  Check it out - the band is bouncing around on stage and even looks like they are having FUN!!  (What a concept!)  And look at how the crowd REACTS!!  People are jumping up and down and moshing and having a blast, JUST LIKE YOU’D EXPECT from a ridiculously awesome show.  I’d pay to see a show like this any day of the week.

Jude Law and a Semester Abroad (Concert):

CHECK OUT THE CROWD INTERACTION!!  Everyone sings the song back when the band stops playing.  Now, that’s some serious power.  The music is fast and furious, and the crowd can’t get enough.  The dude holding the camera is about as stable as Britney Spears’ last marriage.  He can’t even stand up because people are SMASHING into him the whole time.  In short, it’s EXACTLY how a concert should be.
 
BRAND NEW
(Album 3)

Jesus (TV):

Well, first off, Jesse is doing a whole lot more mumbling than he is singing.  I could go up there and produce the same vocal quality for the first 3 minutes of this song, and I might be the most tone-deaf person this side of Macy Gray.  Why would I go to a show to listen to vocal quality worse than would be produced by a herd of buffalo?  Then the song goes into a presumably big buildup around 3:06.  The music gets louder and louder until…NOTHING.  Nothing happens.  There is a NEGATIVE climax to this song.  There are 3 ½ minutes before it gets even MODERATELY loud, and the part that gets loud is ONLY the vocals.  The music NEVER gets loud.  From a singing standpoint, Jesse mumbles for a few minutes and then he screams some stuff that sounds like he took a razor blade to his vocal chords.  Finally, it ends with some WEAKSAUCE slow instrumental bit which reminds me more of poor classical music than something from a Rock and Roll band. 

Millstone (Concert):

LOOK AT THE CROWD!!!  THEY’RE NOT ROCKING!! THEY’RE NOT EVEN MOVING!! NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!!!!!!!  This was EXACTLY like our concert Saturday night.  I wish I could say that it was like this during only this one song.  IT WAS LIKE THIS EVERY SINGLE SONG FROM THE THIRD ALBUM.  It’s like all of the fun and energy was SUCKED from the building. 


Ultimately, I find myself wondering “Do they even KNOW?  Do they actually think that their new songs are actually GOOD?” 

Maybe they just need an honest friend/fan to tell them the truth. 


The Truth:


You guys were just blown off the stage by Sean Kingston.  SEAN KINGSTON!!

The car ride over to the concert rocked INFINITELY more than the actual concert.  This is seriously sad. 

There wasn’t a single ounce of energy from either the crowd or the band at any point during the concert. 

Several of your biggest fans left YOUR concert sick to their stomachs and utterly miserable.

Brand Old is a hell of a lot better than Brand New

Come back.  We miss you guys

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.